Lianne Mandelbaum has been advocating for food allergic airline passengers for eight years after she and her son were treated horribly. She has turned that experience into an advocacy platform which has fostered change in the airline industry.

When something scary happens, like the outbreak of a new infectious disease such as the novel coronavirus now called COVID-19, people understandably get scared. And scared people can pick up some truly weird ideas.

Food Safety Best Practices are Important to Help Protect Lives Facing a long checklist when conducting site-inspections—or booking caterers—event planners might overlook the issues of food safety and food allergens. But given the frequency of food recalls and outbreaks of food borne illnesses in recent years, its vital for event organizers to evaluate how suppliers tackle these issues, and not to shy away from asking questions about food safety policies and procedures. “The best question to ask is how they handle allergies,” said Jeff Sommer, executive chef, Wildhorse Resort & Casino, in Pendleton, OR. “You need to feel confident that…

Understanding Food Safety is Crucial for Controlling Risk Thinking of everything that can go wrong with an event is nearly impossible, but that is what meeting professionals try to do when we create contingency plans as a means to controlling risk associated with our events. Think about the Farmers Insurance “Hall of Claims” commercials showcasing things that have gone wrong — cement pouring into a car, hot air ballon landing on a parked car. It’s a clever campaign that highlights unique claims their customers have submitted. At the end of each commercial, the “voice of God” affirms their tagline: “We…

Food Safety is a Necessity for Meeting Professionals In the last few months there seems to be a plethora of headlines announcing food safety issues related to crackers, meat, cheese, cucumbers, lettuce and more. Who would have thought that headlines like these would be of concern for a meeting professional or even a corporate event and that we'd need to create a food safety checklist? "Pepperidge Farm Issues Goldfish Recall" "The Shady Business of Food Fraud" "Ritz cracker Products Recalled Because of Salmonella in Whey" "Multistate Outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 Infections Linked to Romaine Lettuce" Safety and security of…

The Turn-It-Teal project began in 2014 as a way to increase awareness around food allergies. Now it’s a movement and it’s keeping kids safe on Halloween. Every year, children across the country dress up as their favorite heroes and action figures to collect those precious sweets, door-to-door. However, there is a growing challenge these kiddos face. For many, candy is just a decadent one-night sugar coma. For a growing number of kids, the unknowns in that handful of candy, can be life-threatening. And while overeating candy is going to lead to a stomach ache for most kids on Halloween,…

But, The Salad is Gluten-Free! Last week a meeting planner (MP) posted a message (below) on my Facebook feed frustrated with the response the director of catering at a large convention center (DC) was providing when she asked if the serving vessel the salad was in was actually gluten-free. The conversation went something like this: MP: I notice that the salad is labeled gluten-free. Is that cone (vessel) the salad is being served in gluten-free as well? If it is not, then the salad is not gluten-free and the label should be corrected. DC: The salad is gluten-free. You do not have to eat…

Preventing Harm is Basis of Worldwide Food Service Safety Month Every year since 1994, December marks Worldwide Food Service Safety Month. The annual observation was established to remind everyone, from the professional food service industry, to cooks at home around the world, that food safety is of supreme importance. Buying, storing, preparing, and serving food are the typical topics covered, but what does food safety really mean when it comes to serving custom eaters at our events? Hint: It’s more than remembering to wash our hands and change aprons. The Basics Let’s begin with the basics we expect to hear about:…

On February 8th, every Chipotle restaurant in the country closed briefly for an all-hands meeting to address food safety. In the wake of 52 foodborne illnesses, in nine states, five of which resulted in hospitalization, the chain needed to respond to the public outcry with a comprehensive food safety plan. Unfortunately, contaminated food and E.coli outbreaks affect every state at an average rate of one illness every two weeks. Fruits, vegetables, beef, dairy products, chicken, fish, eggs, turkey; it can seem like nothing is safe. Only 18% of contaminated food is imported, so food handling and revised safety plans are…